Irene Whelan - The Bible War in Ireland

(between pages 156 and 157)

I have received much support during the years it took to complete this work, and it is a pleasure now to acknowledge it. I would like to thank Queens University , Belfast, for a Riddel Bursary during the initial stages of my research, and for a Junior Research Fellowship at the Institute of Irish Studies. I would also like to thank the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation of Princeton, New Jersey, for a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship.

I am grateful to the following libraries and record depositories for allowing me to consult material in their possession: the British Library; the Cavan County Library; the Church of Ireland College of Education, Rathmines; the Dublin Diocesan Archives; Galway County Library; the Linen Hall Library; the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; the National Archives of Ireland; the National Library of Ireland; the New York Public Library; the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland; the library of Queens University, Belfast; the library of the Representative Church Body, Dublin; the School of Oriental and African Studies, London; the library of Trinity College Dublin; the library of Westminster College, Cambridge, for access to the Cheshunt Foundation papers; and the Zentralbibliothek, Zurich, for access to the Pestalozzi papers. Finally, a special thanks to Rhonna Goodman and the staff of Manhattanville College Library, particularly Susan Majdak of interlibrary loans who facilitated my every need with efficiency and patience.

This project was begun when I was a graduate student at the University of WisconsinMadison, and it is to my supervisor, James S. Donnelly, that I owe the greatest debt. His conscientiousness helped to keep me on track over what was often a rocky and turbulent road, and the standard of scholarship he upheld was always inspirational. If this book lives up to his expectations I will be well satisfied. I would also like to acknowledge the kindness and support of Dr Ronnie Buchanan who was Director of the Institute of Irish Studies during my time in Belfast, as well as the friendship and advice of David Hempton, Myrtle Hill and Joseph Liechty, scholars whose knowledge of evangelical history was far superior to mine. They pointed me in directions I might not otherwise have considered, and without their input this book would have been much diminished . Needless to add, any errors are solely the responsibility of the author.

In the United States I have benefited greatly from the community of scholars engaged in Irish studies. From the very beginning of my ventures into Irish religious history, Kerby Miller has been a bulwark of support, always ready to share his knowledge and enthusiasm. Bill Kelleher and Jo Thomas, Gearid hAllmhurin and Cecilia McDonnell, and Nancy J. Curtin have provided fellowship as well as practical help. In Madison Dineen Grow shared her wonderful friendship as well as her love of Irish culture. Likewise, my Irish-American relatives have contributed enormously to my sense of community and belonging in my adoptive homeland. Maureen Barrett and Bill Verdier of Nashville, Kathleen Jennings of Seattle, Bobby Ryan and his family of Staten Island, Maura Ryan Tier and her family of Brielle, New Jersey, and the various outposts of the Roche family in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles, have all personified the ties that bind the inhabitants of the Irish diaspora.

In New York there are many who have enhanced my life with their friendship and kindness. Maureen Faherty of New Rochelle and her late husband, Marty, made me a part of their family in a way that only emigrants from Ireland could, and Martys premature death left a void in my life that will never be filled. Frank and Monica Durkan were a constant source of reassurance and support. Phil and Ruth DAntoni provided friendship and hospitality in New York as well as organize, and Jacqueline Sareil helped me to organize my life around keeping a foothold on both sides of the Atlantic.

I wish to express my gratitude to my colleagues at Manhattanville College for providing intellectual stimulation and a supportive work environment. Gillian Greenhill and Randy Hannum deserve special thanks for never failing to be on hand when help was needed, and for their most gracious and generous hospitality. Cecilia Winters has been a model of courage and dedication to her academic community and her family, and not least a wonderful friend to me. My colleagues in the History Department, Lawson Bowling, Mohammed Mbodg and Colin Morris, have helped to make my work environment collegial and intellectually challenging. Finally, a special thanks is due to the technology staff. Tom Joyners understated graciousness and gentle humour always made the most difficult computing task seem like childs play, and Gale Justin was an artist as well as a teacher in guiding me through the mysteries of incorporating visual images and organizing text. They both taught me how technology can serve the needs of scholarship, and it is something I will forever appreciate.

In Ireland there are many people who have made the exigencies of my transatlantic journeyings not only bearable but enjoyable. A special place is reserved for Josephine Griffin who shared the challenges of graduatestudent life at the University of Wisconsin and whose friendship has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. In recent years she and her husband, Colm Luibhid , have made their lovely home in Claregalway a haven of repose and hospitality during my visits home. In Galway and Clare my friends Eileen Mannion and Alan Brannelly, Anne Brew and Daithi Scanlon, and Fidelma ONeill have proved that distance is no impediment to bonds that seem to grow stronger and more precious with time.

In Dublin, Jackie Hill has been a source of kindness and support beyond what I could ever hope to repay. She provided friendship and accommodation in good times and bad, and kept me in touch with the Irish scholarly and intellectual world. Also in Dublin, Linda Kellicut and Chris Foley, and John Hegarty and Neasa N Chinnide provided wonderful hospitality and helped me to accommodate and to make sense of the breakneck pace of change in contemporary Ireland. To Neasa, whose love of the Irish language has always been inspiring, and who gave most generously of her time and hospitality to introduce me to the Dingle Peninsula, I wish to register a special thanks. To my cousin Jack Whelan of Dundalk and his wife Agnes I would like to express gratitude for a lifetime of care and concern as well as shared memories.

In Clifden it is not just individuals but an entire community whose support I feel compelled to acknowledge. Nevertheless, a number of people deserve to be thanked individually, among them Brendan Flynn, Anne and John Marshall, and Sr Immacula, formerly of the Mercy Convent and Anne Lee Ueltschi of Streamstown. Mrs Mary Whelan and her family of Castle Demesne and my uncle Thomas Roche and his family of Fahy, have always provided that indefinable sense of home so precious to the returning exile. In a similar vein, Bernadette Gavin Flynn, Freddie Gibbons, Brd Clancy McLoughlin, Mary OMalley, Laura Kelly, Kathleen Villiers Tuthill, Carmel Lyden and Mary OConnor de Brn have sustained friendships that are continually renewed and refreshed with each visit.